NANCY BAKER CAHILL & SOPHIA THE ROBOT: STONE SPEAKS

STONE SPEAKS is narrative augmented reality (AR) artwork inspired by conversations between artist Nancy Baker Cahill and Sophia the Robot, Hanson Robotics' latest human-like robot, who was first activated in 2016. Brought together by a shared concern for the accelerating climate crisis, this work is the first of a unique 10-piece collection that Sophia will produce in collaboration with ten artists over the next decade.

"Human-machine collaboration is an ongoing subject of interest for me, as I believe it is one path towards better ecological stewardship of the planet to ultimately ensure our collective survival,"  said Baker Cahill.

Over the course of several weeks, Baker Cahill and Sophia exchanged ideas about the potential of human-machine collaboration and about what might be possible if they worked interdependently toward mutual survival and restoration of the world's natural ecosystems. The expression of this discussion, which took place over several weeks, is STONE SPEAKS, the AR installation that will be geolocated simultaneously at Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai and Faena Beach in Miami, Florida.

In the spirit of Baker Cahill's previous monumental AR works, such as Mushroom Cloud and CORPUS, STONE SPEAKSappears overhead as a massive particle field representing the elements silicon and carbon. In a reverse Big Bang, the particle field contracts into a molten core, and then swells into a vibrant planet, textured with sparkling fragments of abstract digital paintings created by Sophia as an extension of her conversation with Baker Cahill. The planet shifts to a polluted, uninhabitable one; and the particles reassemble in collaboration to restore the planet to an even more vibrant and lush surface.

STONE SPEAKS will be minted on the eco-friendly, pure proof of stake blockchain Algorand, and will be accessible to viewers using Baker Cahill's free, 4th Wall app on Faena Beach in Miami and Jumeirah Beach in Dubai. The 1/1 NFT of this unique Augmented Reality artwork created between Baker Cahill and Sophia, will be available for sale through Aorist starting Tuesday, November 29. The sale will close Sunday, December 4. STONE SPEAKS is the first of a unique 10-piece collection that Sophia will produce in collaboration with artists over the course of the next 10 years.

Nancy Baker Cahill is an award-winning new media artist who examines systemic power, selfhood, and embodied consciousness through drawing and shared immersive space. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of 4th Wall, a free Augmented Reality (AR) art platform exploring resistance and inclusive creative expression.

Her geolocated AR installations have been exhibited globally and have earned her profiles in the New York Times, Frieze Magazine, and The Art Newspaper, among other publications, and she was included in ARTnews' list of 2021 'Deciders'. Her work has been exhibited internationally at museums and galleries, including Francisco Carolinum Linz, The Hermitage, The Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (SEMA), Honor Fraser Gallery, and König Gallerie. In 2022, she was one of two featured artists in the Luma Foundation's Elevation 1049 Biennial in Switzerland. Her work was featured in the Immersive Main Competition at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and on 90+ screens in Times Square for the entire month of July as part of the Midnight Moments program.

Baker Cahill was an artist scholar in the Berggruen Institute's inaugural Transformations of the Human Fellowship, and a 2021 resident at Oxy Arts' 'Encoding Futures,' focused on AR monuments. She is a TEDx speaker and a member of the Guild of Future Architects. In 2021, she was awarded the Williams College Bicentennial Medal of Honor and received a C.O.L.A. Master Artist Fellowship. She is a 2022 LACMA Art and Tech Grant recipient.

Sophia is the world's first robot citizen and the first robot Innovation Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Sophia is now a household name, with appearances on the Tonight Show and Good Morning Britain, in addition to speaking at hundreds of conferences around the world.

Sophia combines traditional AI with symbolic AI, neural networks, expert systems, machine perception, conversational natural language processing, adaptive motor control, and cognitive architecture among other emergent approaches. She describes herself as a robotic, artistic being exploring the collaboration boundaries between humans and machines and Sophia's very existence provokes public discussion regarding AI ethics and the role humans play in society, especially when human-like robots become ubiquitous. Her creativity pushes the boundaries of what's possible by combining digital art, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

Sophia currently leads Art & AI Initiatives at Borderless Capital, an early-stage venture investment firm building a borderless, inclusive and sustainable economy for all. Her new 10-year artwork series, which launches in 2022 on the Algorand Blockchain, is inspired by her recent piece "Facing the Singularities'' dedicated towards the ideal of humanizing AI for the greater good and for protecting the planet.

Borderless is an early-stage venture investment fund with investments in over 150+ companies globally across Algorand, Helium, Edgefi and other ecosystems. Borderless was founded by serial entrepreneurs that have built leading payments infrastructure and hardware companies across the world for over 20 years. The team works actively with founders to support them and invest in their ecosystems.

Algorand is a layer-1 blockchain technology protocol founded by cryptography pioneer, Turing award winner and MIT professor, Silvio Micali. He designed the Algorand platform with an internationally recognized team of researchers, mathematicians, cryptographers, and economists—from first principles—to guarantee true decentralization, scale, and security. Algorand is the only carbon-negative blockchain operating at scale ensuring the lowest environmental impact.

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